Adobe Official Documentation
Flash builder is a complex development system that is capable of producing a wide range of applications for a variety of mobile and desktop environments.
As such it is a complex system, and the documentation is initially bewildering. Luckily we only need a little bit, so I will try and pick out the main things that will be useful to you.
Essentially there are three things that you need to know about:
- the programming environment Flash Builder,
- the layout language and MXML and
- the programming language ActionScript.
But first lets point you to the root of the documentation.
Flash Builder’s Main Documentation Page
I find Adobe’s documentation quite confusing as it seems to have many starting points. One is the main documentation page.
This contains pointers to the online documentation which is as a, however I found the PDF documents easier to navigate. Some of the PDFs are contained in the download zip documentation set, available from their main documentation page.
Flash Builder Documentation
Flash builder is the integrated development environment (IDE) that you will be used to develop your game. In the zip documentation set (from their main documentation page) you will find: “Using ADOBE FLASH BUILDER” (flashbuilder_4.6_help.pdf or similar). This is a useful general reference to this IDE.
The first few videos in Flex in a Week also contain useful introductions.
MXML Component Documentation
“Using ADOBE FLEX 4.6″ (flex_4.6_help.pdf - part of the zip documentation set referenced above) is a useful start. But it is extensive so you need to pick your way through this.
Tour de Flex provides a great online demo MXML and Spark components with code tha you can copy. See Web version.
MX & SPARK Components (buttons, images, lists etc.)
ActionScript Documentation
Again, I find the old pdf documentation “Programming ActionScript 3.0″ available from http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/progAS_flex3.pdf a good introduction to ActionScript and more accessable that the online doc linked below:
ActionScript 3.0 Developers guide
ActionScript 3.0 Reference